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PREFUSE 73 STAVES OFF STARDOM AND TRASH TALKERS ALIKE
social and political implications buried in
the title of Scott Herren's third Prefuse 73
full-length Surrounded By Silence harbor a cryptic
significance, but nothing Herren is afraid to dis
cuss. "The title has multiple meanings," he offers
from his home in Barcelona, Spain. "One is to be
completely self-absorbed and to shut your ears off
to the chaos that surrounds you. Another is to be
making your point politically by whatever means
you're speaking and being fuliy aware that no one
is listening."
Tearing into a laundry list of oppressive laws
and questionable U.S. political happenings,
silence, as anything other than an abstract theme
is virtually nonexistent in the context of the
music. In fact. Surrounded By Silence is Herren's
most boisterous work to date. The former
Atlanta native's prior Prefuse arrangements
have always been assembled with a working
method of slicing and dicing any coherent
vocal message and massaging it into the
music as an added textural ingredient.
But with Si'ence, the emcees say what
they mean like never before.
From a production standpoint, the
recording bears the same fractured
beats in the marriage of experimental
hip liop and post-rock underpinnings
were laid out in his prior outings Vocal
Studies ♦ Uprock Narratives (2001) and
One Word Extinguisher (2003). The emo
tional political and intellectual scope of
Herren's instrumental output remains steady.
But when the album's second cut "Hideyaface"
unfolds with a colossal lyrical interplay between
emcees El-P and Ghostface Killa, its made plain
that the verbal silence has been shattered.
Subsequent songs take shape with a deluge of
honest-to-goodness lyrics flowing from collabora
tions such as 'Now You're Leaving," featuring
emcee Camu (Dilated Peoples) and 'Morale
Crusher'* featuring Beans.
But just as Herren takes one step into a brave
new world of experimental hip hop. silence has
hardly surrounded him. "Some say Surrounded By
Silence is the most fucked up Prefuse album ever,
some think it is the most straight,' he adds.
"Some love it, some don't get it' Listeners are
indeed divided.
Heel Hie New Group, Same As...
Working with a cast of communally and aes
thetically contrasting players, including members
of the Def Jux crew, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Books
and Blonde Redhead vocalist Kazu Makino has
given breadth to Herren's sound. "The essence of
hip hop is collaboration, connecting with people
and making something new out of something that
already exists,' he adds.
Collaboration has long been a part of Herren's
approach. From the release of his first Prefuse
recordings, to his other projects—Savath+Savalas,
Delarosa+Asora, and most recently Piano
Overlord—HerTen is always in good company.
Everyone from metal-faced supervillain MF Doom
to Sam Prekop and Aesop Rock have frequented
Prefuse's material. But the appearances of hip hop
megastars GZA, Masta Killa and Ghostface of Wu-
Tang Chn have boosted Prefuse to a level that
exists somewhere beyond the underground.
Collaborating with such accomplished artists
raises his profile, and to many critics, Wu-Tang's
presence on the record has been construed as a
dubious move. The gruff lyrical flow of songs like
'Hideyaface' and 'Just the Thought* (featuring
GZA and Masta Killa) are a far cry from the indie-
minded 'coffee shop" hip hop Henren has long
crafted.
To make such a quick leap from working with
strictly underground artists to appearing alongside
such recognizable mainstream names has left
many wondering about his true intentions. But for
Herren, the pairing is less of a personal-gain ven
ture than it is a straightforward meeting of
remarkable artists. "Yeah, I brought these people
together,' Herren says. 'People who are willing to
be open and look at me the way I'm looking at
them. I don't want them to see me as a com
modity as much as I don't want to see them as
one. It's not like, 'Oh, I can get on this shit
and get it out to a million different listeners.'
My records are going to sell the same with
or without the people who are or. it The
people on it can be just as much of a dis
traction and keep people away from it'
he continues. 'People might see it and
say, 'Uh, Ghostface is on it but who the
fuck is Kazi or Ty-uhn-die Braxton? and
not pick it up,' he continues in his best
Southern drawt
*1 came up with a plan to get vocal
ists that I had the means to link up with
and get them in an environment where they
wouldn't normally be, or to pair them up
with people they wouldn't normally be paired
with,' he explains. "That allowed me to enter a
domain of more restraint in some aspects, but
also a domain of using my normal style within
their style.'
For the haters slinging comments like "Scott
forgot his people' and 'Scott's too big for his
britches, he's hanging out with Ghostface now,"
Herren says, Tve said plenty of things that were
out of context because I was being an idiot I'm
no way innocent when I reflect on the ways Tve
responded to certain people in similar situations.
This isn't a vacation job, nor a social status quo
I'm concerned with meeting. Bluntly, people
talking the shit about me never gave a fuck about
me before, so why are they tripping on me now?
They obviously weren't my people before."
And The Road Crew
The maze of abstract beats, clicks and cuts
that have long guided Prefuse are the result of
long hours spent in the studio. Just as Surrounded
By Silence is rife with a profound lyrical presence.
Herren's trademark arrangements still dominate
the recording. In taking Silence on the road, the
utilitarian value of Herren's approach is worth its
weight in gold. But, Prefuse 73 is by no means a
one-man show.
And even though Ghostface and GZA won't be
making many appearances on Prefuse's upcoming
U.S. tour, Herren has assembled a group of
impressive players. The live band is constantly
changing, and past Prefuse line-ups have included
everyone from former Helmet/ Tomahawk drummer
John Stanier, Tortoise drummer John Herndon and
NYC-based minimalist composer Susie Ibarra. The
current group is a much more inconspicuous
outfit* the present live incarnation of Prefuse 73
includes a cast of proficient players from around
the country. Herren (MPC, drums), along with
long-standing tour deejay and fellow Atlanta
native Ryan Rasheed, is joined by Josh Abrams
(bass) of Chicago minimalists ensemble Town &
Country, fellow Chicagoan Marcus Evans (drums)
and DJ Nobody AKA Elvin Estela (live mixing).
Td love to bring everyone on the record to
each venue, but there would be no way in hell my
label would pay for it' says Herren. "We play a
bunch of songs off all the records and try to
switch it up a bit I used to play alone for crowds
that would be super receptive and cool but it felt
awkward. Prefuse 73 is generally an instrumental
project and I was just a weird-looking dude with a
few machines around him. As long as we have fun
doing it and give the crowd a dope show, that's
all I'm concerned with, really.'
Chad Radford
f ;
WHO: Prefuse 73, Battles, DJ Nobody
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, April 29
HOW MUCH: $12
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